Illinois ADA Project members Martha Younger-White and Alan Goldstein are helping to plan the Illinois statewide ADA celebration. The 15^th Anniversary celebration – "ADA: Renew the Spirit" will be held July 21, 2005 at the J. R. Thompson Center in Chicago, IL and in Springfield, IL on July 26th, 2005.

ADA Indiana will mark the 15^th Anniversary of the ADA on July 26, 2005 with a press conference to be held at the Indiana Capitol Rotunda in which a Report Card detailing the impact of the ADA in Indiana will be read. Following the press conference a public reception will be held at the Arts Garden 1:00-3:30pm downtown in Indianapolis.

The Michigan ADA Steering Committee is sponsoring three events to celebrate the passage of the ADA.

The Disability Network in Flint, MI will be hosting a picnic at Kearsley Park and will feature music provided by a local band, demonstrations of adapted fishing equipment and a raised bed gardening display, an accessible voting machine and the opportunity to register to vote.
For more information, contact Gary Kidd at The Disability Network at 810-742-1800 or via email: garyk@disnetwork.org.

The Disability Resource Center of Southwest Michigan is planning an event at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum in Kalamazoo, MI from 3:00-6:00pm. Roger McCarvil from the PBS program Disability Today will be filming a program during the event. Duncan Wyeth from Michigan Commission on Disability Concerns will be the keynote speaker, and Stan Wakefield from the Great Lakes ADA & Accessible IT Center will be presenting as well. Scheduled events include: a Leader Dog presentation and service animals in training on site, voter registration, free demonstrations in the Planetarium, hands-on assistive technology, a presentation of the upcoming Metro Transit Center and the Kalamazoo/Battle Creek International Airport, and plenty of training and resource information.
For more information, please contact Paul Ecklund at Disability Resource Center of Southwest Michigan at 269-345-1516 (V) or 269-345-5925 (TTY).

The Marquette Community Celebration block party hosted by the Michigan ADA Steering Committee, Superior Alliance for Independent Living, Michigan Protection & Advocacy Service, Inc. and the U.P. Children's Museum will be held on the 100 block of Baraga (in front of the U.P. Children's Museum) in Marquette from 11:30am-3:00pm. The block party will include plenty of food, fun, presentations and resource information.
For more information, contact Superior Alliance for Independent Living at 906-228-5744 or 800-379-7245.

ADA Minnesota will celebrate the 15^th Anniversary of the ADA with a free celebration titled "ADA 15 Years Strong: Then, Now, and Beyond." This event will be held at the Earle Brown Heritage Center in Brooklyn Center from 9:00am-3:30pm, on Tuesday, July 26 2005. The celebration features presentations by Peabody and Emmy-award winning NBC Dateline correspondent John Hockenberry, and Barry Taylor, Legal Advocacy Director at Equip for Equality, Inc., the Illinois Protection and Advocacy organization. Six educational group sessions will take place throughout the day. These sessions will address, aging and disability, mental health issues in the workplace, reasonable accommodations at work, accessible web design, understanding social security and emergency preparedness for people with disabilities. The celebration is open to the public.
For more information about the event, contact ADA Minnesota at 651-603-2015 (V/TTY).

ADA Ohio will collaborate with various organizations, businesses, and the media throughout July in celebration of the 15^th Anniversary of the ADA. Planned activities are:

• Support the twelve Independent Living Centers in Ohio by making special presentations on various topics covering all five titles of the ADA during celebrations being planned by the CILs and by providing various ADA materials for distribution by the CILs
• Present the history of the ADA to businesses during on-going trainings
• Distribute an announcement regarding the 15^th Anniversary to media in all of Ohio’s 88 counties
• Promote the July Audio Conference session on the status of the ADA through the ADA Ohio listserv and web site
• Co-host a luncheon with the Inter-University Council, the collaboration of Presidents of Ohio’s public universities, for ADA Ohio members
• Support the activities of the First Annual ADA Zoo Day through collaboration between the Columbus Zoo and the Columbus Advisory Committee on Disability Issues

The ADA Wisconsin Partnership will mark the 15^th Anniversary of the passage of the ADA with a statewide training conference that focuses exclusively on the ADA. This training will cover the provisions of Titles I, II and III of the ADA and is titled "The ABC's of the ADA". The training will take place in Wausau and Madison, WI on August 10^th-11^th, 2005 respectively and will be aimed at business owners, designers, builders and government agency staff. Sally Conway of the U.S. Department of Justice has been invited to present on both days. Robin Jones of the Great Lakes ADA and Accessible IT Center will provide a keynote address with a look at the past 15 years since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and share her views on future developments.
For updates visit the ADA Wisconsin Partnership web site or contact Tammy Liddicoat 608-334-8105 (V).